There’s a lot to like about Robert MacIntyre, proud son of Oban, Scotland: working-class roots; hardworking and humble; big Proclaimers guy. None of which to say Bobby Mac doesn’t also run hot when things don’t go his way. He may look mild-mannered and most of the time he is, but raging, he’ll tell you, is also in his DNA.
“I’ll hit the bag. I’ll say some harsh things, but that’s what gets me going,” he said ahead of the 153rd Open Championship last month. “If I walk around and I’m all happy, I just made a double bogey or people are clapping, thanks very much, that’s not me. I’m needing to smash something up. I want to rip a glove. I do something to get that anger out. It’s better out than in for me. Some people it’s better holding it, but for me it’s get it out and then just do not let it affect the next shot. Simple.”
Through three rounds at the BMW Championship, MacIntyre had little reason to sulk or stew, save for the occasional jeer he heard from hostile American fans. He’d opened the event at Caves Valley in Maryland with a dazzling eight-under 62. In the second and third rounds he cooled off with a 64 and 68, respectively, but still, no one could keep up with the smooth-swinging Scotsman. At 16 under through 54 holes, MacIntyre had the lead by four.
That was the good news. The bad news: MacIntyre‘s playing partner in Sunday’s final pairing was world (galaxy?) No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who chews up four-shot leads like Pac-Man crushes power pellets. Daunted? MacIntyre didn’t appear to be. Or at least he said he wasn’t. “I was really expecting to go out there, foot down and perform the way I have the last couple days,” he said Sunday evening.
Instead, MacIntyre got off to what he characterized as “an absolutely horrific start,” featuring flier lies and a mud ball on the first two holes that led to a pair of bogeys. After another bogey at the 5th, MacIntyre’s lead already had been halved. He settled down with seven straight pars, but against Scheffler pars rarely suffice. MacIntyre’s inability to control his distances wasn’t helping matters.
“My golf ball was going miles today,” he said. “I don’t know why. I need to work that out. But when I got the game back in somewhat of a shape, I went over the back of the par-3s. I feel I’ve hit good shots, and I’ve gone miles.”
MacIntyre also was hearing it from the pro-Scheffler galleries, as he had been on Saturday, too. As MacIntyre walked up the 12th hole in the final round, a fan yelled, “You ain’t ready!”
By 15, MacIntyre had fully ceded the lead to Scheffler but dug deep to try and stay in a sound mental space.
“I wasn’t nice to myself up until that point,” he said. “Scottie had missed a putt, and then I’m like, right, if you were given one shot back going up 15 at the start of the week, would you have taken it? One hundred percent I would have taken it. Yes, I had the lead, but it doesn’t matter until the final putt on the 18th green and the 72nd hole. I still had a chance.”
But then Scheffler birdied 15 and two holes later, on the par-3 17th, put the nail in MacIntyre’s coffin when he holed one of the greatest chip shots you’ll ever see. MacIntyre also had been greenside at the U.S. Open at Oakmont earlier this summer when J.J. Spaun drained a 64-footer to win the title. Surely no other player has been beaten in such a short span at two such prestigious tournaments by two such unlikely, soul-crushing shots. When Scheffler’s chip dropped at 17, you might have half-expected MacIntyre to turn green and start busting through the seams of his polo.
MacIntyre didn’t. He kept his cool. For the moment anyway. After signing for a disappointing 73, MacIntryre said the obvious of Scheffler:
“He’s the better player on the day,” before adding, “I’m just really pissed off right now.”
A reporter asked MacIntryre if he noted any specific improvements he felt like he needed to make.
“Right now, not a clue,” MacIntryre said. “Right now, I want to go and smash up my golf clubs, to be honest with you.”
Fret not, it’s all part of Bobby Mac’s process.
Better out than in.
